IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri (2nd L) talks during a news conference.
#1. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
This network of thousands of international scientists has been around
since the late 1980s, but it was in 2007 that the IPCC — charged with
forging a scientific consensus on climate change — really made its mark.
In its fourth assessment report on climate change, which comprised a series
of reports released throughout the year, the IPCC made the final case that
global warming is real, and that humans are the main cause. The IPCC also
detailed the potential consequences of unchecked warming, and produced a
road map for the kind of economic and technological changes needed to avoid
the worst-case scenarios. Climate change is a momentous challenge, but the
IPCC — which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore this year — has
shown us the way.